Betty Rubble
Betty Rubble (née McBricker) is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones and its spin-offs and live-action motion pictures. She is the black-haired wife of caveman Barney Rubble and the adoptive mother of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. Her best friend is her next-door neighbor Wilma Flintstone. She speaks with an Midwestern accent. Betty lives in the fictional prehistoric town of Bedrock, a world where dinosaurs coexist with cavepeople and the cavepeople enjoy primitive versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles and washing machines. Betty's personality was based on the stock character of the lead character's best friend's wife, commonly seen in 1950s television (other prominent examples including Trixie Norton of The Honeymooners, which by conflicting accounts was a major inspiration for The Flintstones, and Ethel Mertz of I Love Lucy). Much like Trixie or Ethel, Betty spent a lot of her time socializing with Wilma, and the two would often end up working together to bail their husbands out of whatever scheme of Fred's had landed them in trouble, sometimes scheming with each other. Contents * 1Character * 2Biography * 3Portrayal * 4Animated Media ** 4.1Television shows ** 4.2Films and Specials * 5Crossovers * 6References Characteredit Betty is rarely seen failing to follow the lead of Barney or Wilma, so may appear to be the least developed character in the show. In spite of this, Betty is portrayed as having a distinctly emotional marriage with Barney, which often includes pet names and more obvious affection than the dynamic and energetic interaction between Fred and Wilma. Occasions when Betty leads the action are extremely scarce: one episode centers around her working undercover as a gentle old lady to earn money for a present for Barney; in another the plot focuses on her and Wilma's suspicions of Barney being involved with another woman (who turns out to be Fred in a disguise in order to attend a ball game free of charge). This lack of protagonism (her continuous presence almost becoming a backdrop for supporting characters Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and Dino) makes Betty less of the lead that the show's general concept might imply. Biographyedit While the mid-1980s spin-off series The Flintstone Kids depicts Betty as a child, the series seems to be mostly apocryphal, owing to its presenting Betty as a childhood friend of Fred and Barney (the original series asserts that they first met as young adults6) and that they enjoy watching a TV show starring Captain Caveman (The Flintstone Comedy Show asserts that the adult Betty is ignorant of Captain Caveman's superhero identity when working with him at the Daily Granite newspaper). The series also erroneously refers to Betty's last name as "Bricker," not "McBricker."7 Still, the series' assertions that Betty was a childhood friend of Wilma, that she has an older brother named Brad, and that her parents ran a convenience store may be considered canon. As young adults, Betty and Wilma were employed as cigarette girls/waitresses at a resort. There, they first met, and fell in love with their future husbands, Fred and Barney. Eventually, Betty and Barney were married, presumably not long after Fred and Wilma.6 Betty became a homemaker, keeping house with such prehistoric aids as a baby mammothvacuum cleaner, pelican washing machine, and so forth. Betty, much like Wilma, also enjoyed volunteering for various charitable/women's organizations in Bedrock, shopping, and (occasionally) meeting the celebrities of their world, including "Stony Curtis", "Cary Granite", and "Ann-Margrock". Betty at one time also had a job working for an 'old lady' who turned out to be a young lady in disguise and who was using Betty to pass counterfeit money; this was the only episode centered principally around Betty.8 In the fourth season of the original series, Betty and Barney found an abandoned infant on their doorstep, by the name of "Bamm-Bamm." After a court battle for possession of Bamm-Bamm (in which the Rubbles faced the opposition's noted prehistoric lawyer "Perry Masonry"), the couple were allowed to adopt Bamm-Bamm.9 The Rubbles never had biological children. When Bamm-Bamm was a teenager, Betty gained employment as a reporter for one of Bedrock's newspapers, the Daily Granite (presumably a parody of the Daily Planet of Superman fame), under the editorial guidance of Lou Granite (presumably a parody of Lou Grant of the contemporaneous eponymous series, and formerly of The Mary Tyler Moore Show). While employed there, she shared various adventures with prehistoric superheroCaptain Caveman, who (in a secret identity) also works for the newspaper.1 Later still, after Bamm-Bamm grew up and left home, Betty started a successful catering business with her neighbor and friend Wilma, before becoming a grandmother to Bamm-Bamm's twin children, Chip and Roxy.5 Portrayaledit June Foray voiced Betty in a 1959 Flintstones pilot titled The Flagstones, but Bea Benaderetwas cast for the series and voiced Betty for the first four seasons before resigning in 1964 due to her workload on Petticoat Junction. Gerry Johnson took over the role for the fifth and sixth seasons and the 1966 film The Man Called Flintstone before departing the role. Gay Autterson Hartwig voiced Betty throughout the 1970s through the early 1980s. Julie McWhirter Dees voiced her in mid to late 1980s. Betty Jean Ward voiced her throughout the 1990s. Grey DeLisle has since performed the role in later Flintstones media since 2000. In the 1994 film, Betty was portrayed by Rosie O'Donnell,1011 who reportedly won the role because she captured the high pitch laugh at her audition. Jane Krakowski replaced O'Donnell in the 2000 prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, in which Betty's maiden name is "O'Shale". Animated Mediaedit Television showsedit * The Flagstones (1959) (voiced by June Foray with an Midwestern accent) * The Flintstones (1960–1961) (voiced by Bea Benaderet with an Midwestern accent) * The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971–1972) (voiced by Gay Autterson) * The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972–1974) * Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977–1978) * The New Fred and Barney Show (1979) * Fred and Barney Meet The Thing (1979) * Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo (1979–1980) * The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980–1982) * The Flintstone Funnies (1982–1984) * The Flintstone Kids (1986–1988) (voiced by B.J. Ward) Films and Specialsedit * The Man Called Flintstone (1966) * The Flintstones on Ice (1973) * A Flintstone Christmas (1977) * The Flintstones: Little Big League (1978) * The Flintstones' New Neighbors (1980) * The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1980) * The Flintstones: Fred's Final Fling (1980) * The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (1981) * The Flintstones: Jogging Fever (1981) * The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987) * The Flintstone Kids' "Just Say No" Special (1988) * A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration: 50 Years of Hanna-Barbera (1989) * I Yabba-Dabba Do! (1993) * Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (1993) * A Flintstone Family Christmas (1993) * The Flintstones (1994) (portrayed by Rosie O'Donnell) * A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994) * The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) (portrayed by Jane Krakowski) * The Flintstones: On the Rocks (2001) (voiced by Grey DeLisle) * The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! (2015) Crossoversedit * Betty has been seen in the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dad is Disturbed" talking to Dexter's Mom, but was tied up by Dexter's Dad. * Betty has been seen in the I Am Weasel episode "I Am My Lifetime", where she is placed in the Retirement Home for Sidekicks, which is actually Baboon's trailer. * In the Comedy Central animated film The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!, Betty can be seen attempting to kill Toot Braunstein with a rocket launcher for having an affair with and getting impregnated by her husband Barney, only for the missile to hurtle towards a dinosaur. The baby Toot is pregnant with is shown to be Bamm-Bamm. * In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode "A Grim Prophecy," Grim is shown as a child in the Stone Age, just starting his job as the Grim Reaper. He has a list of living things to reap, and visible on the list is "B. Rubble," which could be either Barney or Betty. During the credits sequence of the episode "Modern Primitives," Betty is seen in the kitchen as Barney answers the doorbell. The visitor is Billy, who makes unintelligible noises before Barney clubs him on the head. Betty asked who was at the door, to which Barney replies "Proof against evolution," laughing. Referencesedit # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b The Flintstone Comedy Show, 1980-82, NBC # ^''' I Yabba Dabba Do, 1993, ABC # '''^ "Day of the Villains," The Flintstone Kids, 1987 # ^''' "The Surprise," The Flintstones, season 3 # ^ Jump up to:a''' b'' ''c Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby, 1993, ABC # ^ Jump up to:a'' ''b "Bachelor Daze," The Flintstones, season 4 # ^''' "Betty's Big Break," The Flintstone Kids, 1987 # '''^ "Old Lady Betty," The Flintstones, season 4 # ^''' "Little Bamm-Bamm," The Flintstones, season 4 # '''^ # ^ Page, Janice (1994-03-29). "A New Stage in Her Career: O'Donnell's Made It in Movies, but Broadway Was Her Dream". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-10. Category:Characters Category:Non-Disney characters Category:Hanna-Barbara characters Category:Females Category:TV Animation characters Category:TV Show characters Category:Humans Category:Cartoon characters